


Uncomfortable Family Moments

by ivyrobinson



Category: Next to Normal - Kitt/Yorkey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-24 10:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1602668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyrobinson/pseuds/ivyrobinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan and Diana decide to give Natalie "the talk".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncomfortable Family Moments

The moment Natalie Goodman’s father walked in on her with her hand halfway down her boyfriend’s pants, she was convinced that her life had turned into some sort of horrible teen comedy or satirical horror movie. Okay, so thankfully, he didn’t literally walk in on this. However, he certainly walked into the house while she had been in the act of unbuttoning her boyfriend’s cargo pants, calling out her name and starting a conversation with her. Natalie had reacted first, moving her hands up to press against Henry’s chest, breaking their kiss and sending him tumbling back on her bed. He had rubbed at his chest, while she had grabbed his t-shirt and threw it at him. He looked at it before tossing it back at her, and she realized she had thrown her own t-shirt at him. She pulled it over her head and zipped and buttoned her own jeans before feeling under her messy covers and found the shirt he had worn to her house. He pulled it over his head and she grimaced as she realized it was inside out...which to be fair, wasn’t that far off from his normal style. 

Natalie could hear her father make his way up the stairs, rambling about dinner plans and work and...whatever the hell else her father talked about these days. He was supposed to be at his therapist appointment for at least another hour or so and not home as though he had come from work instead of the doctor’s office. 

She ran a hand through her hair, which had been straightened that morning making it slightly staticy and not as wild as it could have been had she not. She rubbed at her lips trying to reduce the swelling. With her free hand she pointed at Henry’s hair, which was in desperate need of a cut which meant his hair was sticking out everywhere and defying heights. Natalie tried to make a note to maybe refrain from tugging on it in the future. 

He ran a hand through his hair...which made it even more messy. He was also missing one sock, so she reached over and pulled the other one off, tucking it under her bed. She reached down and grabbed a book for him to set over his lap, and he did so readily. She grabbed a book of her own and sat on the other corner of her bed and opened it while Henry began to conjugate French verbs under his breath. She wasn’t even sure if she had given him her French textbook or if that was his...coping mechanism. 

Her father opened the door without knocking, and then looked startled by Henry’s presence at the edge of her bed. Henry’s cheeks were extremely pink but thankfully that was part of his natural complexion. And her father was only pretending to look startled because Henry’s car was in their driveway and she was certain that it was hard to miss. 

“Hey guys,” Dan said, leaning against the doorframe in a dad-casual way. “What’re we studying?”

“French,” Henry said, slightly mumbled and under his breath, not looking up from his textbook. 

Natalie glanced up from her book, “History.” 

“Book of lies,” Henry added, and she was glad to see he was starting to recover somewhat. 

When the hell did Natalie’s life turn into someone that got caught fooling around by her father? (Or close to it.) 

“Well…” Dan stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked around her room. She honestly couldn’t picture a more awkward moment. “Do you kids want to come downstairs, I’m about to go order dinner?” 

“Actually,” Henry said, jumping up, setting her textbook down. “I should head home and start making dinner for my Mum and I.” 

Natalie arched an eyebrow at that, considering she couldn’t remember the last time Henry had to go have dinner with his mother. Or that his mother was around at dinner time. But she couldn’t blame him either, for making a quick escape. She would make one too, were it not her own house. 

“Oh, okay,” her father said as Henry bent down to pick up his backpack. He frowned as he looked at Henry. Natalie would just jump out her window if Henry had a condom packet sticking out of his pocket or something. But, what he noticed was his feet. “Barefoot?”

Henry looked down and wriggled his toes, “Yeah, cheers to spring and all that.” 

He leaned over and pressed a kiss against Natalie’s forehead before heading towards the door. Lucky bastard. “I’ll see you later.” 

Then he squeezed past Dan and she could hear him descend down the stairs quickly. Asshole. 

Her father stood in her doorway for a few moments longer, past the sound of the front door shutting and the sound of a car pulling out of their driveway. 

Natalie continued to read her textbook, though she wasn’t really reading it and didn’t need to read it at the moment. 

Finally, “Did we ever establish any rules about having boys over or in your room?” 

It hadn’t ever really been an issue and when Henry had come into her life she had avoided bringing him home and once he was in her home...well things had grown chaotic and her parents had been too distracted to establish boy rules with her. 

So, “No.” 

“Oh.” Dan went quiet again. “Is this the first time Henry’s been in your room?” 

“No.” 

The thing about her dad was that he was an inconsistent parent (though improving due to events lately), that wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. Maybe it was because him and her mother had been so young when they had her brother, and still young when she was conceived and even more clueless than before, that he sort of looked to her for cues. 

She wasn’t acting like this was something to get in trouble for, so maybe it wasn’t. 

Ever since Natalie was young she sort of felt like she was training her parents on how to be parents. 

Her father was still thinking hard about all of this. 

“Did we know about this?” 

Natalie shrugged, rubbing the page of her book between her fingers. “I assumed so.” 

There, that turned this all into the fault of his own parental neglect. Which...it kind of was. Her parents had never set boundaries with her when it came to boys. And they knew she spent most of her free time with him in some capacity. And yet, still never made up any rules about it. 

It was possible that they weren’t even aware of how to, given that they hadn’t set the best example due to the fact they had a shotgun wedding. 

“Oh,” Dan said, pausing again. “Well, I’m going to order dinner, do you want anything special?” 

“Whatever is fine,” Natalie answered, though that wasn’t her preference but she was rather hoping to get her father out of her room before he screwed up the courage to ask about what he had nearly walked in on. 

“You know,” her father continued on, rather than going to order take out. “You and Henry have been dating...awhile now.” He wasn’t quite sure how long they had been together. Natalie felt validated in being able to keep that from her parents. She wasn’t sure why, but old habits died hard. “And things…happen.” 

“I had been wondering if that meteor hitting the earth last Sunday was a delayed reaction to my taken status,” she responded. 

Dan let out a weary sigh, “Nat.” He rubbed his temples. “I just mean...is there anything you’ve been wanting to talk about with me, or maybe even your mother?” 

Natalie couldn’t think of anything she wanted to talk about with either of them less than this particular subject that her father was tiptoeing around. 

“Well, there is one thing,” she prompted, setting her textbook down, finally giving up that particular charade. Her father tensed up at her taking him up on his offer. “It’d be a lot more convenient if I could have a car on my own.” 

“You’re going to college next year and you’re not taking a car to Yale,” Dan responded, his shoulders slumping. A sign of caving in. 

“Then I’m all about dinner,” she looked back at him expectantly, and he hesitated before nodding and leaving her room. 

She slumped back against her bed. Annoyed, awkward, exhausted and sexually frustrated all in one. 

Natalie reached over and grabbed her phone to text Henry that she hated him because he hadn’t had to suffer through most of that. Then she laughed after she sent the text and she could hear the alert noise of his phone go off under her covers. Of course.

She gave up and got out of bed and went back downstairs where her father focused all the conversation on food and avoided bringing up anything else he may have thought they should be talking about. 

Perfect. now may this topic forever be avoided and swept under the rug. 

Unfortunately, the topic did not disappear like Natalie had hoped. An entire week went by and lulled her into a false sense of security that any sort of discussion about the details of her and Henry’s relationship would be avoided for whatever length of time they were together. 

Henry hadn’t even been by to remind her father that a discussion about acceptable behavior in the house could be forthcoming. Instead, they would go back to his house after school to hang out because it was closer to a tomb than a house that actual people lived in. 

It also allowed Natalie to further avoid her father until this entire thing was a long forgotten memory. 

And it had been working, or at least, she thought it had been working. But one evening, right before dinner when she had come back from Henry’s she had walked into the house and found...both of her parents sitting at the kitchen table. 

Natalie she set her book bag down near the door and walked into the entrance of the kitchen. “Are you guys here to tell me that you’re getting a divorce?” She asked, “Because we already had that talk.” 

“No, we aren’t bearers of news today,” her mother responded, kicking out a seat and motioning for Natalie to sit. She didn’t want to, but she sat anyway. “However, your father thought you might want to talk to me about something.”

Natalie shook her head, “No, I’ve filled my conversation quota today already. Every word I am saying now is being billed to me.” 

“Tone, Natalie,” her father warned, and her mother waved him away. 

“How is Henry doing?” her mother asked, continuing on. 

“Good, I mean, considering…” Natalie shrugged one shoulder and looked down. “The war. You know, it’s been really tough on him and the draft despite him being underage. He couldn’t get out of it. It will probably haunt him for years to come but there are pills for those kind of nightmares right? The distance is hard on us too, but he has a picture of me next to his bunk and we write love letters to each other...well he does. I usually just write back ‘me too’.” 

Her father clenched his fists and her mother held a hand up. 

“You know the more sarcastic you get, the more you sound like me,” Diana warned her, and Natalie rolled her eyes. “And look like me.” 

Natalie sighed, “Henry’s fine.” 

Diana turned her chair slightly and lowered her voice as though Dan couldn’t hear. She wished she had one of those divorced parents that didn’t talk to each other. Not quite to the level of Henry’s parents, but somewhere in between them and the level where her parents were at. 

“I know you guys have been dating however long,” her mother didn’t pretend to know things like her dad did sometimes. “and you’re probably at the point in your relationship where you guys are...thinking about things and curious about things.”

Oh, God. Natalie slumped down in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. “You know, school has this mandatory health class I had to take that covered this.” 

“But still, that doesn’t cover emotional things and other things, it’s probably basic knowledge,” her father added and Natalie winced.

“You know, when I was your age,” Diana began, ignoring her ex-husband’s interjection. 

“Oh, God,” Natalie said. “I’ve heard enough about yours and Dad’s sex life in my life.” 

“Yes, but just remember your father and I loved each other very much at the time,” Diana said. “And really, that’s what sex is. An act of love.” 

Natalie looked over at her mother, “Are you certain you guys are the best ones to dole out this advice? Didn’t you guys have a shotgun elopement?” 

Diana nodded, “And honey, that’s what makes us the best people to give this advice. We made the mistakes so you wouldn’t have to.” She reached over and patted Natalie on the knee, and Natalie pushed it away. “Now, sometimes I know boys like to pressure….” she tilted her head. “No you’re driving most of this relationship, I assume this wouldn’t really be an issue.” She waved off that train of thought. She was wrong, because if Natalie was the dominant force in this relationship then there wouldn’t be a relationship to speak of. “But it’s something that should be thought about and discussed before it happens. Love shouldn’t be the only factor here, because let’s face it love is fleeting…” 

Her mother was the worst person to actually give this topic because she got derailed so easily. 

“Noted,” Natalie said. “This was a great talk. I’m going to go do homework and think about these big decisions.” 

“Not yet,” her father said before she could stand up.

So much for a clean getaway.

“We just want to make sure you’re well prepared before making these decisions,” Diana added, since apparently she got to play the role of sensible parent in this particular chat. 

Too bad this was months and months too late. And Natalie had sort of just made the decision of yeah, losing my virginity seems like a solid idea at this moment. 

People could talk all they want about big decisions and the right person, and so on but from what she had observed in this area was that sex only had as much power as you allowed it. She wasn’t certain why people had this idea that the first time should be the most special and waited ages to delay this typically inevitable moment, and then hopped into bed easily with each new boyfriend. Why give all that power to the first? 

Natalie was fairly certain that she would never have a boyfriend again anyways. Not because she thought that she and Henry would be true love forever or bullshit like that but because she was fairly certain she fundamentally couldn’t exist in a relationship and Henry had some sort of defect that allowed him to put up with her weirdness. 

He called it love, but she was positive it was a defect. 

“Maybe we should make a doctor’s appointment,” Diana continued on. “Talk about birth control options, as well as condoms because you really should use both, honey. One to make sure to prevent diseases, and another to really make sure to prevent pregnancy. The world isn’t ready for another you, no offense.” 

“Oh, God,” Natalie moaned, pressing her hands against her face. 

Her mother either misinterpreted her or was just fucking with her because she said, “No, really both are equally important to utilize. I mean, the doctor can talk to you about which birth control option is right for you but, there are also little details no one thinks about.” 

Diana paused as though she was waiting for Natalie to ask a question, but Natalie wasn’t doing anything to prompt this conversation further. She would continue to sit here and wish she were dead while her mother rambled on about birth control and different types of love.

Her mother sighed, or maybe her father did, Natalie was still covering her face with her hands because it seemed better than looking at her parents for this horrific moment. 

And her mother continued without her prompt because well, that’s what Diana always did. “Like, there’s a right way to put on a condom. That’s important. Not knowing well, that’s why your father and I got married in the first place.” 

“Diana.” 

“Please stop talking.” 

At least Natalie and her father were in agreement about her mother’s tendency to overshare. 

“Well the sentiment still stands,” Diana said and Natalie could see in between her fingers the movement of her standing up. “Do we have a banana? That’s how they teach these things right?” 

“Mom, please don’t,” Natalie begged. 

“No, let me do this for you,” her mother insisted. “I’ve missed out a lot of bonding moments, let’s have this one.” She could hear the pantry doors open and shut as her mother searched for a fucking banana. 

Natalie hadn’t even thought to have nightmares about this. 

“Do we have condoms in the house?” This question was directed at Dan. “Is that an awkward question to ask my ex-husband?”

“Mom, please this entire thing is too awkward.” 

“It’s only as awkward as you make it, Natalie,” Diana waved off her daughter’s concerned. No there was no un-awkwarding. “You know, what, maybe a sandwich bag will work. If a banana can be a penis, then a sandwich bag can be a condom, right?” 

“Mom.” 

Diana reached over and pulled Natalie’s fingers down so her eyes were no longer covered. Her mother actually had a banana on the table and a sandwich bag in her hand. 

“Oh wait, maybe we should use a real condom because opening the packets can be tricky and a real mood killer,” Diana said, and then wagged her finger at Dan before he could say anything about how that could be a good thing. This was the worst thing to ever happen in Natalie’s life, and a lot of things had gone wrong in her life. “But I guess one thing at the time…”

“Stop, Mom, stop.”

“No, okay this material won’t really work because you’re really going to want to use more of a rolling motion so the material should be tight here…”

“Oh my god, Henry and I have been having sex for months and I’m not pregnant or diseased so will you stop,” Natalie said, before pressing her hand against her mouth to stop the words from coming out though it was obviously too late. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Of all the things she could have done to stop that, she had to blurt out with the truth? Why couldn’t she have just run away or something?

Diana burst out laughing in response, while Dan exclaimed, “Months?” 

Natalie stood up, and her hands fell to her side but she was fairly certain that her face was redder than Henry’s skin when he spent more than two minutes out in the sun. 

“Okay, so it’s fine, end of discussion, goodbye.” 

Her mother reached out and grabbed her arm and forced Natalie back into a sitting position. “No, we still have to discuss this.” Natalie sighed and folded her arms over her chest. “We should set you up with a doctor’s appointment…” 

This was probably the least painful way to get out of this conversation. “I have a doctor. Well, I go to the clinic in Portland.” 

“Portland?” Her father repeated, since he seemed only to be capable of repeating words she had spoken. 

Diana looked confused by that too, “Why Portland?” 

“To avoid conversations like these,” Natalie responded. It was both sarcastic and the truth. “I’m going to leave now.” 

“Wait,” Dan said, regaining use of his vocabulary. “We haven’t discussed the matter of having Henry in her room.” 

Diana snorted, “Sort of a moot point now.” 

“Diana.” 

Natalie wondered how much her father regretted bringing her mother into this conversation. Probably almost as much as Natalie regretted everything about the past ten minutes.

She stood up, and this time no one tried to stop her. “Okay, you guys figure that out, I am leaving.” 

“Should I high five you now or when you get back from Henry’s?” Diana asked, causing Natalie to grown. 

Well there was no getting out if now, Natalie either needed to move or to actually break up with Henry. 

Neither would probably end up happening any time soon. 

“I’m leaving,” she announced again, making movement towards the door and grabbing the first pair of shoes she found by it. 

“What are Henry’s parents rules about you guys in the house?” Dan called out while she stuffed her feet in her shoes. 

Natalie shrugged, “His mom’s never home anyway.” Then she slipped out the door before they could ask anymore questions and walked as fast she possibly could.

This is where having a car really would have helped her escape.


End file.
